An egg question of another sort....

FrankC

OK, so my wifeand I are asking each other "is it ok to leave the hardboiled Easter eggs out all night, or do we (she) need to get up before the kids to hide them for the egg hunt?". So what do you think? Yah, or nay?

fc

BBQMaven

USDA guideline is two hours out of frig only.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/NR_032105_01/index.asp

stike

fresh eggs sit out all day under the hen :laugh:

anything in the egg is d.e.a.d. dead

i wouldnt have any issue, and someone would hafta explain the one they had, if they had one. :laugh:

FrankC

I agreed with you Jeff, but my better half decided to put'em back in the fridge...she got up at 4am to hide them. Now we're just waiting for the kids to wake up :unsure:

fc

civil eggineer

When I was a kid, the eggs sat out for over a week by the time we ate them all. I would probably leave them in the fridge for peace of mind.

BobS

I have read that most boiled eggs have cracks in the shell even if you cannot see them, so they are subject to contamination and spoiling lots faster than the raw egg.

stike

that may be true, but the question becomes "how is it getting contaminated"?

if the boiled eggs are sitting in a bowl on the counter, they would need to be contaminated somehow.

i agree if they are being handled, or are out being served with other food where they can be cross contaminated.

BobS

Stike,

Bacteria is everywhere and stuff gets contaminated just in the open air. The point is that the shell protects a raw egg, but does not protect a boiled one in the same way.

I googled it and also learned that boiling increases the natural porosity of the shell and that can lead to contamination.

stike

bacteria may be in the air, but the virulent strains of fecal bacteria, salmonella, etc. are quite a bit different

to each his own, but in general, people imagine things are far worse than they really are.

the vast majority of people have absolutely no qualms about leaving their toothbrush out all the time, sitting next to a toilet, in a room literally swimming with fecal bacteria. yet boiled eggs sitting on a counter overnight send many americans running and screaming from the room.

your toothbrush has far more dangerous bacteria on it than those eggs ever could unless, which was my point, they became cross contaminated through handling

there is absolutely nothing 'bad' about bacteria necessarily. they are everywhere, and the harmless and even benevolent forms vastly outnumber the bad stuff. you literally have more individual bacterial organisms ON you, then you do cells in your body. bacteria themselves aren't harmful. some types are, and thankfully we know where they hang out. in raw eggs, in the entrails of animals, possibly ON the meat from those animals. keep those things (and your kitchen sponge) away from the eggs, and you are safe.

Little Steven

Gee,

You would think a guy with over 17K posts wouldn't have to be digging up old stuff

BobS

Honestly, I am not too concerned about food spoiling and definitely keep and use food, with no problem, longer than recommended.

You make a good point about the germs on toothbrush, but then I also brushed my teeth with tap water, when I lived in Mexico, but I never drank the same water.

Going back to my original comment -- I think that the data is clear that boiled eggs are not as resistant to spoilage than raw eggs.

stike

that's HOW you get to 17k! :laugh:
can't all be original